


Pepper Potts and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

by dixiehellcat



Series: Equilibrium [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Extremis Pepper Potts, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Iron Fam, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Team Pepperony, Tony Stark Lives, the Russos whomst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-23 13:03:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20008732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dixiehellcat/pseuds/dixiehellcat
Summary: In the battle of the compound, Rescue truly lives up to her name.





	Pepper Potts and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

**Author's Note:**

> This story was originally written as a stand-alone, but since then I've written two other stories that fit nicely with it. As I have several completely different post-Endgame verses running around in my works list, and several more in my brain that haven't yet been written, I decided I probably should tag this group that kind of go together. They all do stand alone and can be read separately, though. So welcome to the Equilibrium verse! lol

_I did not sign on for this,_ Pepper Potts thought while blasting aliens. _I’m about spreadsheets, and specs and blueprints, not being a superhero._ She figured she probably should have thought about that before she agreed to let Tony make her a suit, though, because once one had a suit, it seemed one was obliged to use it when the need arose, like fighting off the hordes of attackers following Thanos. _He was supposed to be dead, what’s he doing back here again?_ She had had no time to ask anyone anything; when she saw the compound light up with explosions, she had barely had time to leave Morgan with Happy and get into the blue armor Tony had designed for her.

They had fought together, side by side, back to back, for a few moments, before Iron Man flew off into another part of the hell the Avengers’ grounds had become. Despite the pressure of the moment, Pepper grinned to herself when she thought of the amazed (aroused) look on Tony’s face when she had landed as Rescue. If those hungry brown eyes on her had been any indication, there might be another Stark baby in the future. Pepper glanced around after dispatching a gaggle of foes, but didn’t see Tony; she figured he was busy enough. She squared up to fire repulsors at a pair of fighters racing toward her—until a blast of sound-impact-energy- _something_ shivered across the grounds and buffeted her to one side.

For a moment Pepper flailed, then regained her equilibrium. The oncoming invaders halted and looked confused for a second, before they began to crumble before her. It looked just like the horror of Thanos’ snap, the day she had watched speechless as SI employees disintegrated in their tracks…the Gauntlet was supposed to be destroyed, though. Carol Danvers had carried it off with that intent, so what had happened? She scanned the battlefield until she spied a familiar flash of red and gold, surrounded by a rainbow halo of light. As she watched, the figure crumpled to the ground. Gripped by sudden terror, she launched herself that way.

Rhodey was beside him when she dropped to the ground. War Machine’s gauntlets were still in place as he reached for Tony, and the sight suddenly, unaccountably enraged her. The devastation on Rhodey’s face should have held that back; she knew the two had been like brothers for most of their lives, but still, for an instant she felt lit up from within with anger. If Tony was going to die, by god he was going to feel her hand on his, the way they had held hands at their wedding, the way he held on to her when Morgan was being born even while he bitched she was going to break his fingers. 

Peter dropped lightly to earth, calling for his Mr. Stark, tears spilling down his cheeks as he realized what was happening. Pepper moved him into Rhodey’s grasp, to comfort him and keep him from seeing the end—he was just a child, he shouldn’t even be here, sobbing, begging Tony not to go. Tony would hear that, she knew, and he would fight with every failing fiber of his being to stay. She knelt, letting the nanites roll back to free her hand. “Don’t, Pep!” Rhodey’s voice was urgent, low but clear to her ear above the crackle of flames and faint shouts. “The radiation, and the heat—you’ll burn yourself.”

“I’ll heal.” _I will live on, and my physical wounds will heal, but the hole this moment leaves won’t._ Seen up close, Tony was…his face was scorched down the right side, his body lay limp in the ruins of his suit. On his right hand, or the charred remains of it, the Infinity Stones still glimmered, beautiful and awful. Somehow, Pepper surmised, they hadn’t been able to destroy the Gauntlet, and Tony, her beloved idiot, had done the only thing he could think to do to protect everyone, knowing he could not survive it himself. His eyes were glassy and unblinking, and for one all-consuming instant, she feared she was too late; but as she leaned in, they managed to focus on her. “Hey,” she said.

“Hey, Pep,” came out on a breath. A tiny quirk of his mouth was all he could muster, conveying so much using the last dregs of his life. She could read him like a book; the fractional tilt of his head saying _I’m sorry, you were right, you said all along I was gonna kill myself doing this and you weren’t gonna be a part of it, but I made you a part of it anyway and I’m so sorry I did this to you._ It was almost like she could hear him in her head. As her hand neared him, she could feel the heat radiating from the scraps of metal alloy, and she wanted to scream, knowing he must still be in pain lying there.

“FRIDAY, vitals?”

“Life functions are critical.” Even the AI sounded distressed. Pepper could not save him, but she could hurt with him for a moment, long enough to see him safely on his way. Her hand closed over his left one, lying on the arc reactor—no, she could hear him correcting her, the nanite housing. His flesh was almost as hot as the metal, but she refused to grimace or move away. The blue light in his chest sputtered, about to go out. Tony’s hand trembled under hers, just barely. Pepper fought to keep her composure; she was not going to break down and have her grief be the last thing he saw. She could feel the sear of the metal rim of the housing; it was not burning her, but she started to take his hand and lift it away, just because it was the only way she could ease his suffering at all. This near, she was beginning to perspire herself, so much that even Rescue’s climate control couldn’t deal with it. She resolutely ignored it, but it ramped up so fast, and she remembered something Bruce had said earlier, about the stones, about why he could handle them: they were bursting with gamma radiation, the same energy that had made him the Hulk. The heat she was feeling wasn’t fire, it was radiation, burning Tony up from within and searing his organs, driving them to shutdown.

Almost, Pepper broke then, at that moment of awareness and agony. “Tony?” she whispered. “Look at me?” Somehow, his eyes flickered toward her, life still clinging there though their warm beautiful light was starting to dim. When she leaned in to kiss his cheek, his skin felt almost as hot as the metal of the suit; small labored puffs of hot air escaped his scorched lips and brushed against her face as he struggled to keep breathing. None of the heat touched the cold hole expanding in her chest, where her heart had been torn out by the roots. A part of her wanted him to go on and die, simply so she would know he was at peace; knowing he was beyond pain, now and forevermore, was almost worth letting him go. “We’re gonna be okay,” she said soothingly, shifting back just far enough to meet his eyes, and force a smile. She wasn’t a praying person, but she hoped with all of her being that she could maintain her self-control, so the last thing Tony saw would be her smile.

Someone moved behind her, then around to her side. She glimpsed grey metal: War Machine. Absently, she wondered where Peter was. Guilt had eaten Tony alive for months after his return from Titan without the boy, and the fleeting glimpse she had gotten of their reunion, across the ruined compound in the heat of battle, had heartened her. Now, Peter was going to have to go on without his mentor. “Tones is gone, Pep,” Rhodey said, his gentle voice choked. “You’ve gotta move. We have to get the Stones into safe storage, and he…You know he wouldn’t want you hurt by them.”

She knew that, knew there was a little girl she left coloring with her Uncle Happy who was going to need her mommy more than ever, now that the daddy she worshipped and who worshipped her wasn’t coming home. Pepper felt a tickle inside her suit like sweat trickling; she had to stand up, move away, let go of Tony’s hand. It still felt warm and soft and alive, and every second she didn’t move was one more second she could pretend none of this was real. With a deep breath, she steeled herself, to stand up and move forward, the way she always had. The sweat was tickling her palm and fingers too—she must have been holding on tighter than she realized. She looked down, and lost her own breath, because her hand was _glowing_ , not from the last flickers of the dying power source beneath it, but in a way she recognized but thought she would never see again.

_Extremis._

Rhodey bent over, his hand extended to take hers and help her up, when his eyes followed hers downward. He gasped and grabbed at her, then hissed and pulled back. Pepper tore her transfixed gaze away from the spectacle at the end of her arm, long enough to register the shock on his face and the way he was staring at his unarmored hand and shaking it as though it stung or—or burned. FRIDAY’s voice broke the instant of silence, sounding as shocked as an artificial intelligence could sound. “Ms Potts! Ms Potts, boss’ vitals are stabilizing!”

As FRIDAY read them off, impossibly, Tony’s eyes that were glazed and nearly fixed moved, from a distant unseeing stare. They focused on her, and a hint of a frown even formed between his brows. “Pep?” he breathed, his tone confused. 

“It’s okay. Don’t worry.” _Easy for you to say, Potts,_ she told herself. She stayed in place, feeling shaky but oddly exhilarated. The glow of her hand spread up her arm, vanishing into the bracer of Rescue. Tony’s head tilted slightly; his gaze concentrated on her face, and his mouth opened a bit as though in startlement at something he saw there. His lips moved, but he was plainly too weak to talk, and his eyes closed. Her heart lurched, but when she looked down, she saw rainbow sparkles, the colors of the six Infinity Stones, dancing across her fingers and threading through the glow of Extremis. The Stones had been ablaze when she landed, but now, out of the corner of her eye, she noted their light beginning to fade. 

“Ms Potts,” FRIDAY’s voice had taken on a note of caution. “Your body temperature is rising.”

“I know, FRI.” Along with all of the other improbables of her life, she had reached a point of having to reassure an AI. Pepper rolled back her other gauntlet and touched Tony’s undamaged cheek, where her lips had touched moments before in what she was sure then would be the last kiss she would ever give to him. Incredibly, the fervid heat she had felt then seemed lessened now. She rubbed her thumb across his hand resting on his chest, and registered that it felt more normal now too. Pepper didn’t know what was happening, but whatever it was, it wasn’t bad. With a tap on her chest, she opened her suit and slipped to kneel on the ground.

Behind her, Rhodey cried out in alarm, but she ignored him. “FRI, keep monitoring Tony’s vitals,” she ordered. Her left hand held its grasp on Tony’s, and she dropped her right to the earth beneath her, torn up from boots and weapons and a damned Pegasus. The instant her palm contacted the dirt, a current seemed to surge through her, from one hand to the other, and she caught her breath. A childhood memory rose, of accidentally touching a bare wire in an old electric blanket one night, how everything around her had seemed to stop for a timeless second and she had been unable to move. In the same way, the surge of power held her in place now, as if she would move anyway—she wasn’t going anywhere without Tony, unless they carried her there in a casket.

“Boss’ vitals are stable!” FRIDAY announced. “They are close to normal range.”

Pepper nodded, and shifted on her knees, maintaining her position. Rhodey crouched beside her and started to talk to her in that low voice she knew so well, the one she had heard him use on Tony so many times when Tony was acting a fool. She swallowed the half-hysterical laugh that rose in her throat; it wasn’t appropriate, not now, not yet, maybe never, but at least something was happening that was not her walking away from the dead body of the love of her life. 

Whatever he was saying didn’t register. She didn’t really want to look away from Tony, but she chanced a quick side peep, and when she did, Rhodey audibly gasped again, and recoiled. She wondered what he saw, but there was no time to ask useless questions like that now. Aesthetic was unimportant. Her focus was completely on Tony, on the way his face which had been slack and lifeless and pale was regaining color and relaxing into something closer to a normal state—closer, but in no way normal. The glow of Extremis engulfed both her arms now, and was probably everywhere else if she could force her eyes from her beloved to look at herself. It had terrified her, still did if she was honest, but in this instant she would give herself to the flames if it would save Tony. 

Her mouth opened to call out for help when she felt movement to her other side. An unfamiliar voice, female, young, with a Wakandan accent, called out in commanding tone for a medlift, whatever exactly that was. More voices rose, one calling for a portal, and in only a few moments a whoosh beside her ruffled her hair. She peered around at what looked unnervingly like a landspeeder from Star Wars. Pepper had only seen the young woman who stood beside it in pictures of the snapped, but she recognized her as Princess Shuri of Wakanda. “Let us get him into the lift, quickly,” she said to Pepper. “I don’t know what you have done, but you may have held off the hand of death long enough to give him a fighting chance.”

Pepper hated to move away from Tony, but she had to, and fast. She made a conscious effort to tame the heat coursing through her body, then lifted her left hand from Tony’s. The next thing she knew, she was sprawled on her butt on the moist dirt, feeling as though she was kicked by a horse. The last of the power she was apparently conducting raced down her right arm and into the earth.

Without hesitation, Rhodey scooped Tony up and carried him to the lift. A tall pale man in a long red cloak directed him, and two dark women who appeared to be EMTs. With the adrenalin of the moment ebbing, Pepper’s brain was moving slowly, like wading through mud, but after a minute, she recognized the man as Stephen Strange. The ring of fire the medlift headed toward was identical to the one he had appeared through in Central Park, five years and more ago, and taken Tony away, changing their lives and the universe. Tony had told her all about what happened on Titan, how Strange had exchanged the Infinity Stone he bore for Tony’s life to be spared. He had said there was only one way Thanos could be defeated, and Tony had agonized over the man trading half the universe for _him_ , Tony Stark, a useless man in a can, who was supposed to save the day somehow but had no clue how. Then Morgan had come along—Morgan, who Tony had asked about that morning in the park, who Tony had somehow known about before even Pepper did. Tony had gone to ground, barely left the lake house, too afraid of losing her and Pepper to even try to change things. 

She remembered the day Steve Rogers and other Avengers had come to ask Tony for one more attempt, how torn he had been then between the need to protect his family and the drive to help. Of course, he had gone at the problem full force; getting him to stop had been one of the few failures of her life. The fire had only been banked, and had roared back to life the night he had figured out how to travel in time. _Sometimes I feel like I should put it in a locked box and drop it at the bottom of a lake... go to bed._

 _But would you be able to rest?_ she had asked him, and his silence had been all the reply she needed. Maybe now he could rest, she thought but would not say. She did not intend to tempt fate. The only rest she wanted her husband to get was in her arms, in their house, in their bed.

Pepper shook herself a little and looked around. Hardly anyone seemed to have moved, and she realized barely a minute had probably passed since she came to ground fearing she was saying goodbye to the man who had held her heart in his hands for so many years. Nearby, Peter appeared a bit wobbly, being held gently but firmly by Carol. When his eyes met Pepper’s, he pulled away from Captain Marvel and ran to her. “What happened, Ms Potts?” 

“I’m…not entirely sure,” she admitted. He reached for her and she started to rebuff him, but a quick visual appraisal showed the ruddiness of Extremis had vanished from her body, so she let him take her forearms and help her to stand. She felt a bit woozy herself, but getting back into Rescue was weirdly reassuring, and the armor supported her in the way she imagined Rhodey’s did. Peter helped her walk toward the portal, and a moment later Carol appeared on her other side. Beyond the golden circle that looked like a hole cut in reality, she could spy, like a view beyond a window, a green landscape that was definitely not the area around the Avengers’ compound.

They stepped through the portal. “Welcome to Wakanda,” said a fierce-looking woman with a spear. “I will direct you to the med center.”

By the time they got there, Tony was being fussed over by a half-dozen Wakandans who radiated competency, assisted by Strange and Bruce. The latter peeled off to update the new arrivals and sternly inform Pepper, “They’re getting things lined up for him. I’m going to check you out, and I need to know everything you know about whatever the fuck just happened.” 

“Language, Bruce. There are children present,” Pepper said mildly with a nod toward Peter. Never let it be said she had learned nothing from Tony; a good, light deflection could work wonders. Unfortunately, in this case, deflection was not going to fly. The small group walked down a hallway to a smaller, neighboring lab. Pepper sent Peter back to check on Tony and come and get her if his status changed. Carol left with a promise to touch base and an order to have Fury page her (since when did anyone use pagers anymore?) if they needed anything at all. 

With only Bruce and Rhodey there, Pepper told what had happened on the battlefield. Then, she told them all, or at least, all she could remember or had understood at the time, about Extremis: how Aldrich Killian had infected her, how it had manifested that Christmas Eve so long ago when she had killed him to save Tony, and how Tony had developed a cocktail of drugs that had killed the virus.

Rhodey hugged her, and lent a hand while Bruce, his right hand blistered, took blood samples. “No matter what you find,” she told them, “I can’t go anywhere until I know if Tony’s…if he…”

“I put Shuri in touch with Helen Cho.” Bruce capped the sample vials with amazing deftness. “Strange is sending his associate, Wong, to portal her here, and hopefully the Cradle. They’re putting Tony in cryo right now, to hold him in stasis until they’re ready to start on him. Shuri’s already scanned him; his organs sustained damage from the Stones, but frankly, not nearly as much as you would think. I used the Gauntlet to snap and bring everybody back—me, with my whole body irradiated by gamma, and look what it did to me.” Bruce could move his big green fingers, but winced in obvious discomfort. “I mean, Tony’s a human, he shouldn’t even—”

“He’s Tony,” Rhodey grinned. “At this point, I’m not sure there’s anything capable of doing him in.”

“’I shouldn’t be alive, unless it was for a reason’,” Pepper said quietly. Both men looked at her strangely. “Tony said that to me, after he came back from Afghanistan.”

Rhodey just nodded, and Bruce slipped out to take her samples for testing, leaving the door cracked. Pepper settled in a chair and tried to school herself to calm, the way she always did. Rhodey perched beside her and started telling her how the ‘time heist’ Tony had told her about had gone off.

A shadow fell at the open door. Pepper looked up to see Stephen Strange standing uncertainly. “You knew,” she said, her hard-won equanimity starting to unravel again. “Tony said you told him you had seen the future, and there was only one way to win, and then you saved his life with an Infinity Stone. Did you save his life so he could _die_?”

Rhodey’s face grew stormy. “You son of a bitch—” He started toward him, still in his suit, but Pep held up a hand to stop him. Strange’s face looked stricken.

“I did,” the sorcerer admitted. “I saw the only way to win, and it went through Tony wielding the Stones. The—the pain of knowing that, and not being able to tell him so at least he could be ready…it doesn’t excuse me, it was still the only way to save billions, but…I swore an oath as a physician, not to take a life, and if Tony dies, I will…bear it on my conscience, always.” He stepped into the lab, his cape swirling dramatically. “I must tell you something else, though. I did not look past that sight. Why should I have? It was a given, no human could survive using the Stones. So what happened next—I had no idea of that, no inkling you of all people might intervene. You may have changed the future I assumed would come to pass.”

“You know what they say about assuming,” Rhodey pointed out. 

Strange actually smiled a little. “Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve made an ass of myself.”

Pepper nodded silently, finding she could not hate him for being caught on the horns of an impossible dilemma. She hung her head, turning her attention to breathing and regaining some degree of poise, while the men talked quietly. A light touch drew her mind back to the lab, and to the corner of Strange’s cloak, which was patting her hand as though it was alive and—sympathetic. Oh well, a sentient piece of clothing was far from the weirdest thing she had experienced since the day she threatened a Stark Industries security guard with her nonexistent pepper spray, and ended up the CEO’s new PA. She returned the pat and whispered, “Thank you.”

Bruce returned a few minutes later. “Here’s the thing,” he told them, waving a tablet that Strange promptly took from him to examine its screen. “As far as I can figure, Tony’s drug regimen didn’t kill the Extremis virus, it just rendered it inert, and under any other circumstances that would’ve been fine for the rest of your life. This, obviously was…not normal! Your exposure to the gamma radiation from the Stones apparently reactivated the dormant virus in your body, making you able to withstand the elevated temperatures. When you touched Tony and the ground simultaneously, your body acted as a heat sink, drawing the radiation out of his body and grounding it.”

“Second law of thermodynamics,” Rhodey said.

“Exactly!” Bruce agreed. “Heat and associated energies always flow from the higher temp mass to the lower one.”

“Intriguing,” Strange put in, “but what about—”

“Oh no,” Pepper cut them all off. “You boys can science later. Right now, just speak English, please. What about Tony, and what about me?”

“You saved him,” Bruce said simply. “There’s no procedure I can think of that could have stopped the gamma from destroying his organs. Helen and Shuri are working out a way to implement the Cradle while Tony’s in cryo, so they can regenerate the damage that was done without him being in a critical state. As for you, the tests show no virus at all in your body now, only some dead cell material that your white blood cells are eating up. It looks as though the same radiation that woke Extremis burned it out of you.”

“Okay…okay.” That sounded promising, so Pepper could put the whole thing aside and get back to being her usual practical self. She found her phone and started making calls. First was Happy, to tell him what had happened and where they were. He was all for firing up a jet and flying himself and Morgan to Wakanda immediately, but when she started to argue against disrupting her baby’s schedule, Strange interrupted. 

“Not to eavesdrop, but my power is at your disposal.” It was guilt, she figured, but who was she to look a gift horse in the mouth? Besides, his awkwardness in dealing with feelings, others’ and his own, reminded her a bit of Tony when she had first met him, so she was inclined to cut him a little slack. Just a little. At her nod, Strange took her hand for a moment. “You’ll be rather like my mystic GPS to get a fix on them,” he said, then worked his whatever (his hands trembled slightly, she noticed, and wondered if it was anxiety or something else) and a gap opened in the air through which she could see her living room. The sorcerer stepped through and she heard him speaking in low tones; after a few moments, he returned followed by a dumbfounded Happy carrying Morgan. Her dark eyes grew as she gazed around, until she spied her mother, then scrambled down to run to her. 

“Mommy! Did you see the wizard?” She pointed with a happy grin at Strange, who looked quite pleased with himself. “He said Daddy fought a big purple monster and beat him, all by himself! Is that true? Or did he make that up?” She narrowed her eyes and gave an adorable glare. Strange’s cheeks twitched, clearly trying to hold back a laugh. “I don’t think he’s been around many kids,” she added in an effort at an aside. “He didn’t talk to me at first, until I told him I’m not a baby and he doesn’t have to tell Uncle Happy what to say to me, when I’m right there. It’s…im-polite.”

Strange lost the battle against amusement. “She is definitely Tony’s child,” he chuckled and headed for the door. “I’ll go and check with the team treating him, you can bring them up to speed.”

Morgan made the rounds, getting snuggles from Uncles Rhodey and Happy while Pepper explained, in terms she hoped were appropriate for a bright four-year-old, that they might stay here in Wakanda for a while, while doctors helped her daddy get well. Naturally, Morgan understood more than they hoped. “The wizard was nice, and he told me the truth. He said Daddy got hurt pretty bad by the purple monster, and it’ll take a while for him to be well enough to play again.”

“That’s right, Morg,” Rhodey told her. “Your pop is a hero. He made sure lots of kids and their parents will be safe.”

The little face frowned. “Good. I wish I’d been here. I would’ve kicked that mean old monster and made him leave Daddy alone.” A real smile found its way onto Pepper’s face, for the first time since she had flown into battle. A moment later, Morgan looked over Pepper’s shoulder. “Hello!” she said.

Turning, Pepper saw a tall, stately dark-skinned woman in the doorway. She wore a simple but elegant white robe, and a striking crown-like headdress. “Mrs. Stark. I am Ramonda. My daughter Shuri tells me you will be staying with us while your husband recovers.” 

Behind her, Pepper heard Rhodey gulp, and registered she was facing the Queen Mother of Wakanda. “If that’s possible, and not too much trouble for you to accommodate my daughter and me, we would greatly appreciate it.”

Morgan looked up, wide-eyed. “You’ve got a pretty hat,” she said, and the other woman smiled. 

“Thank you. It is called an _isicola_ , and many women wear it here in Wakanda after they marry. Perhaps you would like to learn a little bit about my country and our people, while your _utata_ heals?”

“Yes!” Morgan said eagerly. “Starks always like to learn new stuff.”

While Ramonda took Happy and Morgan on a tour of the royal complex, Pepper and Rhodey retraced their steps back to the main medical area. Instead of his stated duty of standing by to bring messages or run errands, Peter was all over the lab area, bouncing from one station to another and asking the staff questions. Rhodey observed for a few moments, then shook his head. “He’s got the zoomies, Pep.”

“Peter?” Pep called, torn between concern and amusement. “Could you please try to rein your enthusiasm in, before you break something that even Tony and I can’t afford to replace?” The boy smothered a yelp and rushed to her side, blushing furiously in that endearing way he had. Tony had dreamed of the day Peter and Morgan would meet, and now he was likely not going to be available for it. 

“He is fine,” called one tech, clearly amused herself. “We do not often have visitors, much less ones who understand anything we are saying.”

“It’s amazing, Ms. Potts!” Peter gushed. “If I could get Ned here, he’d throw a blanket on the floor and never leave! I mean, uh, if they let him, and really, if I’ve been gone for five _years_ , and maybe he hasn’t, we won’t even be in the same class anymore, although I hope he’d still put up with me—”

“At ease, buddy,” Rhodey grinned. “We checked on Leeds, and he was gone, so he’ll be back with you. I’m thinking somebody else back in Queens is gonna be looking for you though, am I right?”

Peter’s eyes bulged. “Aunt May…oh gosh, she's gonna kill me.” 

Pepper slipped her phone out and sent a text to a contact she hadn’t touched in five years. The reply was almost instantaneous. “May’s back,” she said, “and waiting for you. Rhodey, why don’t you two go find Strange; maybe we can ask one more favor. I’ll check on Tony.”

“But Mr. Stark—” Peter began.

“We’ll stay in touch,” Pepper assured him, “and as soon as he’s able to have visitors, I promise I’ll let you know.”

“Will you be okay here for a while?” Rhodey asked. “I need to check in with command--things are probably batcrap crazy and they may need me flying missions.”

“Of course. Thank you.” Pepper hugged them both and sent them on their way, then walked through the lab to a doorway beyond. Helen Cho and Shuri bustled around large installations of equipment, chattering away at each other in a shared language Pepper didn’t speak. At the center of the room, in a large glass tube capped with metal, Tony lay on a hospital bed, strapped down. Pepper’s fist clenched for a heartbeat, before she took hold of her emotions and realized that was necessary, remembered how limp he had lain in Rhodey’s arms.

“Pepper!” Helen rushed over. “It’s going to take a while, but we can do this. We’re adapting the Cradle’s structural components to integrate with the cryo chamber right now, and once Shuri is certain everything is compatible, I’ll start the process of printing and bonding. Shuri’s scans show an astounding degree of detail, so we’ll know exactly where to start. Vital organs first, then working out to the more superficial levels to do as much as is possible.” 

Steeling herself, Pepper walked slowly around to the right side of the tube. Tony was stripped down to tank top and boxers, and his right side looked like overdone hamburger. The burns on his face were frozen mid-weep, and his arm was blackened. In spite of herself, Pepper took a breath and fought back tears, thankful he wasn’t hurting right now. “There will probably be some residual scarring. Our focus is on essential systems, of course. And…I am not certain we can save the arm,” Shuri said, her musical accent gentle. “The peripheral nerves and circulation were at the epicenter of the Stones’ force.” 

“As long as you can save him,” Pepper was proud she held her voice steady. “If he’s alive, and his mind is all right, nothing else matters.”

Certain that Tony was in the best hands he could possibly be in, Pepper took herself out of the scientists’ way. She found a beautiful little courtyard nearby, sat down and started making calls. While she tracked down SI employees who had been returned, she watched the people passing through, who in turn watched her with curiosity but no hint of hostility. Most of them walked in small groups; at least one was invariably gazing around in wonder, and at least one was pointing and talking. She suspected they were families, or clutches of friends, showing their returned members things that had changed in their absences. It was a smart and natural thing to do, and she decided to do the same on a corporate level. She called her secretary, who had been with her throughout the period of the missing, and they planned reorientation gatherings for staff. As that call ended, a text from May Parker came through, saying simply, _peter’s home. thank you._

Pepper had no idea how long she had been working, lost in the nuts and bolts of running her company and helping to settle the world, before substantial footsteps approached. She looked up and into Steve Rogers’ eyes. The cowl of his uniform was pushed back and his face was streaked with dirt and ash from the battle, sliced through along his nose with clear tracks that might have been sweat or might have been tears. “Pepper, how—how is he?”

“Hurt, badly.” She had had little patience for him, after the way he had treated Tony over the years, but if Tony could forgive and tolerate, she could do no less. It didn’t mean she was going to sugarcoat the truth, though. “Helen and Princess Shuri are working on him. They say it won’t be easy or fast, and he—he’s probably done as Iron Man, for good this time; but they believe he’ll recover.”

Steve dropped heavily onto the bench beside her, exhaustion written in his every line. “When they all started to dissolve into dust, I thought, we won, and I was so thankful…then I looked across, and saw Tony, lying so still, and you kneeling beside him, and…my legs wanted to give out underneath me and all I could think was _oh God, what have we lost, earth’s best defender, and one of the best men I ever knew_. He never knew that, I know he didn’t, and I was too stupid, too stubborn to say the words I needed to say. I knew I’d realized it a second too late, and I was never going to get that chance.” He coughed, and wiped at his face with one grimy hand. “Maybe…I can get a second chance…?” His tone was half statement and half plea. “I know you only let him come back to the Avengers because of the circumstances, but maybe, when he’s well enough, if you could see your way clear to giving me a minute or two, if he’s willing…maybe, I can make things right, and be his friend, the way I should have.”

“’If he’s willing’ is the most important part, Captain.” Pepper couldn’t suppress a small smile. “You know as well as I do how rarely anybody, including me, can keep Tony from doing anything he wants to do, or make him do something he doesn’t. He’s already let your past go. And me—I have a child to care for, and a lover to nurse back to health, and a company to run. No time to spend on grudges.”

Just then her phone beeped with a reply to an email. “I’ll let you get back to it,” Steve said. “Thank you.”

That was only the first. People found their way to Pepper, in the hours that followed, faces she knew and ones she didn’t. Bucky Barnes all but knelt and begged her forgiveness; she gave it, but pointed out it wasn’t her forgiveness he needed. He knew, he said, and prayed, to anybody listening, for Tony’s recovery, so they could try to make peace.

Evening shadows were falling and Pepper’s stomach was thinking about growling when Happy and Morgan returned. “Mommy!” Morgan squealed and clambered into her lap. “Miss ‘Monda used to be a _queen_. Did you know that? She isn’t anymore, ‘cause her son grew up and he’s the king now. He doesn’t have a queen. Princess Shuri says there’s a girl he likes, and she could be his queen, ‘cept Shuri says he’s scared to talk to her.” She giggled.

Pepper looked over at Happy, who smirked and held up his little finger. Yes, she could definitely believe her daughter had everyone she met wrapped around hers. “The queen mother showed us your suite,” he said. _My suite?_ she thought. “Said she’ll arrange for anything you and Morgan need, just let somebody know. Offered me a place to crash too, but if the magician guy can shoot me back to the States, I figured you might want me there to hold the fort down.”

“I…Wow. Yes, Happy, that would be…”

Her voice trailed off. Happy gave her an insightful look. “You overwhelmed?”

“A little,” she said. “I’ll be fine.”

She was. Tony spent three weeks in stasis, while Helen and Shuri worked out the kinks of marrying Cradle and cryo and basically rebuilding his internal organs. Strange and Bruce both visited regularly to lend Pepper their support and the treatment team any help or insights they could. Pepper telecommuted. Shuri insisted on checking her blood periodically; monitoring her Extremis status, or continued lack thereof, was, Pepper suspected, an ulterior motive for keeping her close, not that she minded that much.

Morgan adjusted to her extended vacation with the protean ease of a shapeshifter (and really, what had Pepper’s life become that an analogy like that was commonplace?). Ramonda suggested a day care program for the children of employees of the royal compound; when Pepper expressed concern about imposing, she serenely replied that the local children would love to have a native English speaker their age to practice with. Morgan expressed interest, so Pepper agreed to let her visit for a day. Naturally, getting her to leave was like dissolving Tony’s favorite homemade superglue. She made friends quickly and began to learn Wakandan, insisting on calling Pepper _umama_ daily. It was fortuitous, considering that like her father, Morgan was prone to coming across trouble when bored, like finding her way to the main lab and attaching herself to Shuri, who she declared was better than any Disney princess. Pepper was horrified, but Shuri seemed thrilled to have a tiny assistant she could put to work on simple tasks like counting the kimoyo beads the Wakandans used for tech controls and keeping a tally on a small but remarkably advanced tablet.

Rhodey had been seconded, at his request, to assist with recovery efforts on the African continent, so he could stop by and visit between assignments. Happy was running projects at home with some complaints, but so much skill she wondered if they had been sleeping on his hidden talents all these years. The other Avengers were back in the US, helping with reuniting families, cleaning up the battlefield that had once been their home, and restarting their own lives. Steve called every few days, and often had news for Pepper on how SI’s own programs were aiding on the ground. They weren’t bosom buddies, but their interactions progressed past mere cordiality, and Pepper had to admit she was glad.

Ramonda became a friend and a godsend. She ordered Pepper to take breaks from her work, invited her and Morgan to the royal dining room at least twice a week, and escorted her on tours around the Golden City. The queen mother even took Morgan to the royal quarters a couple of times, when Pepper was tied up in business at the time the day care students were released; she confessed that the time she spent with Morgan reminded her of raising Shuri. 

Every day, Pepper made her way to the cryo space, and sat for a while just looking at Tony’s face through the tube. The last time they had been apart for this long, he had been lost in space, hungry and thirsty and choking. She hoped he was resting peacefully while the struggle for his life was waged, but she wished she could hold his hand and let him know she was there. When she touched the glass, though, it was so icy, it set off shivers she could not shake for hours, even though the lab was comfortable, and the climate warm and pleasant.

The next time Steve called, she asked Bucky if he had felt cold. He said no, he hadn’t felt a thing, even the passage of time. That was good to know; it confirmed Tony was not in any pain, but it didn’t banish the chill that still wound around her heart.

On day twenty-two, ironically enough, Helen and Shuri started the process of bringing him out, with Strange and Bruce standing by. It was a slow procedure, because they had to closely watch all of his vital signs while they essentially brought them back online one by one. Despite all the combined genius focused on the task, and all the assurances, Pepper fretted, until Morgan took her hand in her tiny one. “Now, Mommy,” she instructed, “Doctor Helen and Shuri won’t let anything bad happen to Daddy. Doctor Hulk said he made Daddy better once by roaring at him! And Doctor Stephen is a wizard _and_ a doctor. So Daddy’s gonna be fine.”

 _Out of the mouths of babes_ , Pepper thought and hugged her baby close.

Rhodey had planned to be there the entire time, but was delayed by some bandits on the Arabian Peninsula. Objectively, the process took about seven hours, but it seemed an eternity before Shuri came out into the main lab where they waited. “Mrs. Stark, your husband wants to see you and Morgan.”

Morgan roused from her nap in Pepper’s lap. Pepper threw her phone back into her bag and gathered the little body up in her arms. It was all she could do not to break into a run and push past the weary-looking but smiling princess. At first, the cryo space didn’t look much different, except for the absence of the glass tube. The hospital bed it had enclosed was still in the center of the room, and a body still lay motionless on it; but the straps were gone, and as she approached, the form shifted, lifted its head, and— _smiled_ , the smile that had dazzled the world for years, the smile that had been _her_ world for years. Tony’s right cheek was crinkled with scars, but his eyes were as bright as ever. “My two favorite girls,” he said faintly, and Pepper forced back a sob. 

“ _Daddy!!_ " Morgan shrieked and squirmed to get out of her mother’s grasp. Pepper strove to hold on, but she was a Stark after all, and when a Stark wanted something, it was easier to stop a Wakandan maglev train bare-handed. She was down on the floor and up on the bed in a flash; her daddy let out a small oof when she landed on him, but his smile did not falter. “Shuri said you were frozen! Does that mean I can call you a juice pop now?”

Instead of tears, Pepper shocked herself by bursting into peals of laughter. So did Tony. “Guess you can, Morgoona. Does that mean I have a stick up my butt?” Morgan giggled loudly. He fumbled for a control to raise the head of the bed, and reached out to gather her into an embrace, then made an irritated face and glanced toward his right shoulder. “Sorry, I can’t give very good hugs right now. I kind of lost something there. Doesn’t matter though, I’ll get you right here!” 

He wrapped his good left arm around her, clearly working to draw her attention away from the stump on his right, but Morgan would not be so easily manipulated. She gazed at the bandages, then looked full-on into her daddy’s face, suddenly far more grave than a child her age should ever have to be. “It’s okay, Daddy. You’ll build a better arm anyway. I bet Shuri will help, if you ask her. She’s great.”

“Obviously!” Tony’s laugh was hearty, but it clashed with the rapid blinking and twitch around his nose that always meant he was feeling a little overcome by emotion. “Is she adopting you?”

“No!” Morgan yelled and threw her little arms around Tony’s neck. “I’m yours! Always! Three thousand percents. Yours and Mommy’s.”

Tony grinned down at her, then finally looked up at Pepper. “And Mommy’s,” he said, more quietly. “Hey, Pep.”

Her heart clenched, remembering hearing him breathe her name with what she had been so sure was his dying breath. “Hey.”

“Everything okay?” 

She nodded. She could give him a detailed report later, when they were alone and he was rested, but for the moment, _everything’s okay_ was good enough.

Morgan was busily showing off her new proficiency in speaking Wakandan to her father when a shuffle at the door caught Pepper’s ear. Rhodey rushed in, then froze. His mouth worked but no sound came out. For a second, Pepper half thought he might rush back out, but Tony’s joyful “Sourpatch!” seemed to break through his shock in more ways than one. The next second, Morgan was scooting over to let Tony hug an unashamedly sobbing Rhodey, and adding her own tiny pats and noises of comfort.

Shortly after, Happy arrived; Shuri had contacted him, and he Strange, who portaled him through. Pepper stepped aside (not out; Tony was having none of her going where he could not see her) to alert the other Avengers and Peter, as promised, only to receive replies that they were all about to be shipped through, first class magical rate. Strange accompanied them, and in minutes, the room that had for weeks been silent save for the soft sounds of machines at work was filled with more tears and laughter.

The long-awaited meeting between Morgan and Peter went swimmingly. "Daddy told me stories about you!" she said happily. "You have to take me web-swinging sometime." Peter solemnly swore to do so, while Tony's expressive eyebrows plainly said no such thing was going to happen anytime in the next couple of decades. 

The reunions continued until Tony’s eyelids began to flutter. As though monitoring from afar—and who knew, maybe they were—medical staff materialized to shoo the visitors out. Happy and Rhodey persuaded Morgan to take them on a tour of her ‘royal suite’. Pepper closed the door and turned back toward her husband. Tony was obviously worn out, but his smile had not budged. “How’re you feeling?” she asked.

“Not bad, considering. I don’t remember much—they tell me my innards got pretty well George Foreman’ed, so, no surprise my brain’s functioning like scrambled eggs. Looks like things worked out though, judging from the bright shining faces just now. Not to mention, I apparently have Doctor Balloon Animal in my lifelong debt now, and don’t think for one minute I won’t take full and unfair advantage of that.” Pepper smiled, and secretly half hoped he never got the memories back of those horrible moment, of the pain, the fear, the sense of life ebbing away that he must have felt. “After seeing Peter back, there was a lot of zapping and banging. Thanos got the gauntlet, nobody else was close enough to do anything. The Stones on me, it felt like—the wildest drug trip ever, times infinity, pardon the pun. Mind, blown. But actually snapping, whether I said anything, all that, poof, gone, if it ever got stored in my skull to begin with. The next thing I remember is seeing you, and—” He broke off with an abrupt gasp, his eyes locked on hers. “Pep…Extremis. That fucking—” She hurried to the bed and perched beside him, taking his hand in hers. “I thought it was gone,” he said mournfully. “But your eyes were on fire. I really fucked that up, didn’t I?” 

“Not really. It helped save you, somehow, according to Bruce, and then your friends the Infinity Stones seem to have gotten rid of it for good.” 

He frowned. “Gonna need the complete account, Potts.”

“When you’re stronger.” He started to protest, because of course he did. Pepper silenced him with a touch of one finger to his lips. “We have time,” she said tenderly. “We have time, now.”

He tiled his head slightly, eyes never leaving hers, and his voice took on a note of wonder. “Huh. Guess we do, don’t we? We really do.”

 _I shouldn’t be alive unless it was for a reason either_ , she reflected. _I thought I didn’t sign on to be a hero, but maybe I did, the first time my heart raced when he walked into the room._

Tony opened his mouth, no doubt to make another pass at a Q&A, but only a yawn came out. “No more talk,” she ordered, and he obediently shut up. “You can rest now.” He wrinkled his nose in his usual expression of distaste at the betrayal of his will by his body, but his features settled back into a smile when Pepper scooted fully onto the bed and nestled into the crook of his arm. For the first time since she saw him fall, she felt warm.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I came up with another version of fixing The Thing. This one was inspired by an angsty PM exchange on tumblr with earthsbestdefender, who had had an epiphany about why Rhodey and Pepper never took their gauntlets off while Tony was dying--because the radiation from the Stones would have heated his suit enough to burn them. (Please, don't ponder on that too long, seriously. I mean it, don't.)
> 
> I made that mistake, and after I regained my composure, replied, "although, it would have been cool if Pepper had touched him with her bare hand and NOT been burned...which would lead to the suspicion maybe Extremis isn't as fixed as everybody thought it was.” Then, the concept of the heat sink popped into my head fully formed, and everything unfolded from there.
> 
> This took place last week, shortly before the deleted 'take a knee' scene was released, and it was about half written by then, so most any resemblances are coincidental, except for Steve's description of his feelings and actions upon thinking Tony was dead. I did draw a bit from what we see of his demeanor in that scene, to capture the pain he appeared to be feeling. 
> 
> I hope this helps soothe some hearts in the aftermath of that hurt, and for cutting that scene, the Russos are dead to me forever and ever, world without end, amen.


End file.
